Ooooookaaaaay…

Everything I do is alchemy. That’s why I believe in magic. Not black magic, not the satanic magic that they practice in Hollywood and that the deep state practices and that the media practice. I believe in good magic, light magic, alchametic magic, Cernovich said. Alchametic magic is ‘How do I create something out of nothing purely through manifesting my will through power and light, which is value.’ That’s white magic. That’s alchametic magic.

Between him and Alex Jones, how is it that these right-wing wazoozles have any credibility at all?

2) There is no reason to change the “e” to an “a”, if you are going to go with “alchemetic” (although that seems to be the result of transcription, which in turn seems to be based on his pronunciation, so whose fault is that, anyway?).

3) The parts of alchemy that weren’t bullshit became chemistry. If you’re insisting that you’re doing “alchemy” now, there is a high probability that you are bullshitting (unless you’re being very metaphorical, and I suspect that Cernovich isn’t).

unless you’re being very metaphorical, and I suspect that Cernovich isn’t

I was willing to give him some benefit of the doubt on that one. It could be a metaphorical description of how he views the creative process.

But then I clicked over and read the rest of the article. In the parts that PZ doesn’t quote he says that the reason why there are pedophiles in positions of power is because torturing children is used to power the darkest magic. It’s not because there are people out there with terrifying impulses who will work their butts off to gain enough power to be able to avoid being punished for fulfilling those impulses. Nothing so mundane. No they’re black magicians.

It’s like he’s part of a Live Action RPG that he forgot he was playing and its bled into reality. What he’s describing is a perfectly serviceable plot for a Vampire LARP, but in reality we have much more mundane (and much more horrible, IMO) explanations for why people do horrible things. Mostly it’s because they want to and they can, not because they’re fueling some ritual dark magic.

I really do suspect that they are pushing this stuff as far as they can with the intent of discovering when their listeners won’t put up with it any more, and being amazed that this isn’t happening. Sigh.

I started reading Cernovich when he first started writing, maybe ten years ago, because in those days he wrote thoughtful pieces about how the judicial system is the tool of the rich and powerful and the police need to be reined in. I have no idea what happened to him, but I stopped reading him when he published a piece about how science cannot be trusted and has done the world more harm than good. And absolutely nothing he wrote in the early days even hinted at the alt-right lunatic he has turned into. There’s a backstory here that is going to come out someday, and I’ll bet it will be a good read when it does.

@thirdmill. Maybe, maybe not. If you listen to enough “alt-right woke” stories, you’ll find they’re pretty mundane — some combination of rejecting the establishment, lingering resentment, and an “oh my God, people are listening to me” moment which, in their mind, validates their new found prejudices.

I’ve heard of these stories to know these people feel liberated when they start believing in conspiracy theories and engaging in openly racist and sexist speech, as though they have finally thrown off the shackles placed on them by the politically correct liberal establishment.